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Research report · Workforce and pay · DOL filings

Data Engineer Salary by Experience: $95,000 at Entry Level I to $163,342 at Level IV, From 8,904 Labor Department Filings

Data engineer salary by experience, as of the Labor Department’s newest file (decisions through 30 June 2026): certified H-1B filings offered a median $95,000 at Level I (entry), $112,923 at Level II, $139,152 at Level III and $163,342 at Level IV. Those levels are the Department’s experience proxy, not years worked, and cover H-1B positions only.

$60K$100K$140K$180K$220KBLS medians, all workersData scientists $120KSoftware developers $136KDatabase architects $140KLevel I (entry): median $95,000, middle half $82,998 to $120,822, 10th to 90th $73,154 to $143,276, 1,184 filings$95KLevel Ientry, 1,184 filingsLevel II (qualified): median $112,923, middle half $97,000 to $130,000, 10th to 90th $90,605 to $153,504, 4,020 filings$113KLevel IIqualified, 4,020 filingsLevel III (experienced): median $139,152, middle half $123,297 to $160,000, 10th to 90th $111,384 to $190,000, 1,704 filings$139KLevel IIIexperienced, 1,704 filingsLevel IV (fully competent): median $163,342, middle half $147,050 to $193,400, 10th to 90th $133,110 to $225,000, 1,396 filings$163KLevel IVfully competent, 1,396 filings

Each column: thin line runs from the 10th to the 90th percentile of offers, the blue box holds the middle half, the dark bar is the median. 8,904 certified, full-time H-1B filings with a data engineer title, decided 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026, from 2,988 employers. Red lines are BLS May 2025 medians for all workers in three nearby codes, which have no experience breakdown.

DOL wage level Filings Share 10th 25th Median 75th 90th Median per hour Offer equals the prevailing wage
Level I entry 1,184 13.3% $73,154 $82,998 $95,000 $120,822 $143,276 $45.67 40%
Level II qualified 4,020 45.1% $90,605 $97,000 $112,923 $130,000 $153,504 $54.29 49%
Level III experienced 1,704 19.1% $111,384 $123,297 $139,152 $160,000 $190,000 $66.90 35%
Level IV fully competent 1,396 15.7% $133,110 $147,050 $163,342 $193,400 $225,000 $78.53 33%

600 more filings (6.7%) list no OEWS level, because the wage came from a survey or agreement; their median is $140,000. Hourly = annual / 2,080. All-level median: $125,000.

What changed in the newest year. The all-level median held at $125,000 (year ending June 2025: $125,000) while filings slipped 3.0% to 8,904. The Level I median rose 9.9%, from $86,466 to $95,000. Part of that is mix: without Amazon and Meta the rise is $84,781 to $90,896 (+7.2%), and Level I fell from 15.7% to 13.3% of filings.

What the four levels mean, in the Labor Department’s words

BLS has no code for data engineers: none of the 6,520 titles in its 2018 Standard Occupational Classification direct-match file contains “data engineer”, so its tables cannot show pay by experience for this job. Each filing states the job title, offered wage and one of four prevailing wage levels, defined in the Department’s 2009 guidance:

Level I$95,000 median“beginning level employees who have only a basic understanding of the occupation”
Level II$112,923 median“qualified employees who have attained, either through education or experience, a good understanding of the occupation”
Level III$139,152 median“experienced employees who have a sound understanding of the occupation and have attained, either through education or experience, special skills or knowledge”
Level IV$163,342 median“competent employees who have sufficient experience in the occupation to plan and conduct work requiring judgment”

Why this page gives no year bands

Searchers ask for “data engineer salary 5 years experience”. The federal data cannot answer that, and we will not convert levels into years, because the guidance does not support it. It says points are “awarded based on the comparison of an employer’s job offer requirements to the general requirements for similar occupations”, and experience is scored relative to the occupation’s O*NET Job Zone range, with education, special skills and supervision adding separate points. So the same years of experience can land on different levels. The LCA record layout has no field for years required or held. Pages that do publish year bands use another kind of source: Built In reports responses from anonymous employees and Coursera attributes its bands to Payscale.

Data engineer salary, entry level

The entry-level answer is $95,000, the Level I median across 1,184 filings, or $45.67 an hour. The middle half runs $82,998 to $120,822. Treat the upper part with care: Amazon and Meta are the two biggest Level I filers (104 and 80 filings, medians $132,300 and $177,870). Without those two the Level I median is $90,896, a better guide for employers that are not big tech. Among the 15 metros with at least 20 Level I filings, the median ranges from $72,639 in Houston to $139,270 in San Francisco.

Entry-level titles barely exist in this data. Only 9 filings say junior or entry and 51 say associate, out of 8,904. 74% of Level I filings carry no seniority word at all, and a plain title does not mean entry level either: of the 4,949 filings with no seniority word, 18% are at Level I and 57% at Level II. New-employment filings are a rough cross-check: 52% of Level I filings request new employment, against 14% at Level IV. For comparison, the BLS 25th percentile for all workers is $85,660 for data scientists and $109,370 for database architects.

Limits, stated bluntly.

  • LCAs cover H-1B positions only. This is not U.S.-wide pay and never the average pay of all data engineers.
  • Base wage only. No equity, bonus or benefits.
  • An offer on an application is not necessarily the wage paid.
  • Employers file for positions they may not fill. 12,635 positions were requested on these 8,904 filings, and filings are not hires.
  • Wage levels are entered “as provided by the employer or representative”, so a level is an employer’s statement, not an audit of experience.

The title says senior, the level often does not

Level and job title are two separate signals, and they disagree often. 29% of the 1,880 filings with Senior or Sr. in the title are at Level II, and only 25% are at Level IV. Staff titles are 58% Level IV. Principal titles have the largest share with no OEWS level, 37%. Read a median by title alongside the level mix: Senior shows $139,152 and Staff $170,000, and numbered titles such as Data Engineer II show $137,425. Amazon files 54% of the numbered titles, and its median across all titles here is $156,700, so that ladder is largely one company’s.

Level ILevel IILevel IIILevel IVNo levelWord in the job titleMedianFilingsJunior or entry9Junior or entry: 77.8% of 9 filings at Level I78%Junior or entry: 22.2% of 9 filings at Level II22%Junior or entry: 0.0% of 9 filings at Level III0%Junior or entry: 0.0% of 9 filings at Level IV0%Junior or entry: 0.0% of 9 filings at no level0%$90KAssociate51Associate: 43.1% of 51 filings at Level I43%Associate: 35.3% of 51 filings at Level II35%Associate: 3.9% of 51 filings at Level III4%Associate: 5.9% of 51 filings at Level IV6%Associate: 11.8% of 51 filings at no level12%$106KNumbered I170Numbered I: 78.8% of 170 filings at Level I79%Numbered I: 16.5% of 170 filings at Level II16%Numbered I: 2.4% of 170 filings at Level III2%Numbered I: 0.6% of 170 filings at Level IV1%Numbered I: 1.8% of 170 filings at no level2%$125KNo seniority word4,949No seniority word: 17.8% of 4,949 filings at Level I18%No seniority word: 56.6% of 4,949 filings at Level II57%No seniority word: 13.9% of 4,949 filings at Level III14%No seniority word: 8.5% of 4,949 filings at Level IV9%No seniority word: 3.2% of 4,949 filings at no level3%$112KNumbered II614Numbered II: 7.8% of 614 filings at Level I8%Numbered II: 73.3% of 614 filings at Level II73%Numbered II: 10.6% of 614 filings at Level III11%Numbered II: 2.0% of 614 filings at Level IV2%Numbered II: 6.4% of 614 filings at no level6%$137KNumbered III386Numbered III: 6.0% of 386 filings at Level I6%Numbered III: 16.8% of 386 filings at Level II17%Numbered III: 37.0% of 386 filings at Level III37%Numbered III: 21.2% of 386 filings at Level IV21%Numbered III: 18.9% of 386 filings at no level19%$161KSenior1,880Senior: 3.1% of 1,880 filings at Level I3%Senior: 29.5% of 1,880 filings at Level II29%Senior: 34.0% of 1,880 filings at Level III34%Senior: 25.0% of 1,880 filings at Level IV25%Senior: 8.5% of 1,880 filings at no level8%$139KLead316Lead: 2.5% of 316 filings at Level I3%Lead: 16.5% of 316 filings at Level II16%Lead: 26.6% of 316 filings at Level III27%Lead: 45.3% of 316 filings at Level IV45%Lead: 9.2% of 316 filings at no level9%$150KStaff221Staff: 0.5% of 221 filings at Level I0%Staff: 9.5% of 221 filings at Level II10%Staff: 19.5% of 221 filings at Level III19%Staff: 57.9% of 221 filings at Level IV58%Staff: 12.7% of 221 filings at no level13%$170KNumbered IV27Numbered IV: 0.0% of 27 filings at Level I0%Numbered IV: 25.9% of 27 filings at Level II26%Numbered IV: 14.8% of 27 filings at Level III15%Numbered IV: 51.9% of 27 filings at Level IV52%Numbered IV: 7.4% of 27 filings at no level7%$161KPrincipal281Principal: 0.4% of 281 filings at Level I0%Principal: 7.8% of 281 filings at Level II8%Principal: 12.1% of 281 filings at Level III12%Principal: 43.1% of 281 filings at Level IV43%Principal: 36.7% of 281 filings at no level37%$152K

Each row sums to 100%. Seniority word read from JOB_TITLE. Darker means a larger share of that row.

Data engineer salary by metro, level by level

Dallas-Fort Worth has more data engineer filings than any other metro, 1,553 (17.4% of the total) from 788 employers, and pays one of the lower medians, $112,923. San Francisco leads the large markets at $186,888, with San Jose at $172,585 and Seattle at $156,200. Compare within a level: Level II is $112,923 in Dallas and $161,637 in San Francisco. 174 of the 177 filings at exactly $112,923 nationwide are in Dallas, all at Level II, from 103 employers, and 98% of those offers equal the prevailing wage. The most common single offer nationwide is also a Dallas number: $96,034, on 203 filings, 199 of them in Dallas, 99% at Level II, under SOC 15-2051. 57% of all Dallas filings offer the prevailing wage, so the Dallas median is a legal floor as much as a market price, and 64% of them come from NAICS 5415 firms (the group that includes MSPs), against 46% nationally.

Metro (worksite) Filings Employers Median Level I Level II Level III Level IV At the prevailing wage Cost-adjusted median BLS database architects, same metro
Dallas, TX 1,553 788 $112,923 $90,896 $112,923 $135,000 $157,414 57% $109,538 $154,770
Seattle, WA 670 133 $156,200 $132,300 $146,170 $175,100 $210,856 23% $140,552 $105,430
New York, NY 664 369 $132,000 $103,210 $120,000 $160,675 $189,968 36% $117,268 $131,540
San Francisco, CA 482 172 $186,888 $139,270 $161,637 $190,750 $218,040 22% $161,649 $175,860
Austin, TX 396 205 $132,100 $90,938 $114,754 $149,219 $163,550 44% $134,705 $139,960
San Jose, CA 352 129 $172,585 $124,500 $174,304 $230,500 $264,514 49% $156,294 $197,960
Atlanta, GA 347 219 $117,440 $88,000 $109,283 $130,707 $153,175 49% $117,372 $139,500
Chicago, IL 335 202 $125,000 $85,467 $108,077 $139,176 $160,555 37% $120,662 $147,490
Charlotte, NC 286 163 $120,000 $91,291 $112,424 $135,400 $156,200 48% $123,269 $138,870
Washington, DC 272 153 $126,090 $101,421 $126,090 $157,500 $178,685 47% $115,802 $162,870
Boston, MA 206 124 $131,975 $107,557 $129,322 $152,400 $168,480 38% $121,899 $161,650
Phoenix, AZ 198 126 $115,710 $85,000 $111,072 $135,000 $159,760 42% $111,996 $156,100
Houston, TX 195 125 $111,218 $72,639 $105,976 $127,500 $151,242 46% $112,764 $139,100
Philadelphia, PA 195 139 $109,845 $88,090 $105,206 $129,360 $147,066 51% $107,109 $163,590
Detroit, MI 141 76 $107,848 $84,053 $100,000 $120,000 $135,793 51% $107,528 $132,040
Durham, NC 137 30 $125,119 $107,940 $116,709 $135,250 $161,741 73% $128,232 $141,770
Los Angeles, CA 135 91 $147,674 $97,550 $125,000 $151,091 $184,601 33% $130,033 $155,740
Raleigh, NC 120 92 $113,774 $77,314 $101,150 $128,000 $156,000 38% $115,910 $132,740
Tampa, FL 119 71 $113,300 $90,000 $100,797 $119,995 $165,000 42% $112,301 $133,290
Fayetteville, AR 114 32 $126,369 $122,794 $101,000 $133,869 $145,000 13% $138,330 $104,070

Top 20 of 36 metros with at least 40 filings. Level cells need five filings. Cost-adjusted = median divided by BEA 2024 regional price parity / 100. Worksite county mapped to BLS May 2025 metro areas, with ZIP as fallback (99.4% mapped). Full data in the download.

By state

State Filings Median Level I Level II
TX 2,234 $113,547 $90,896 $112,923
CA 1,102 $170,000 $134,000 $151,070
WA 682 $155,000 $132,300 $145,070
NC 539 $121,263 $91,291 $112,424
NJ 412 $118,102 $93,226 $110,000
IL 364 $120,779 $85,467 $108,000
NY 364 $145,450 $110,000 $131,973
GA 353 $117,440 $87,950 $109,283
VA 291 $120,000 $94,100 $116,000
FL 255 $111,613 $94,404 $100,797
MA 232 $132,000 $107,557 $122,601
OH 201 $110,160 $95,534 $100,339

Data engineer vs data scientist vs database architect

As filed, data engineers trail both neighbors: $125,000 against $137,946 for data scientist titles and $136,000 for data and database architect titles. Level by level the gaps with data scientists are small through Level II, then open to $9,083 at Level IV. Holding wage level and metro fixed, the data engineer difference with data scientists is +0.1%, so level mix and location account for the raw gap. Against architects it stays at -5.6%. Our data scientist salary report covers that federal code in full, and our software engineer salary atlas does the same for developers.

Level IentryData engineer, Level I: median $95,000 on 1,184 filings$95,000 Data engineerData scientist, Level I: median $96,117 on 947 filings$96,117 Data scientistData or database architect, Level I: median $98,571 on 39 filings$98,571 ArchitectLevel IIqualifiedData engineer, Level II: median $112,923 on 4,020 filings$112,923 Data engineerData scientist, Level II: median $115,939 on 2,618 filings$115,939 Data scientistData or database architect, Level II: median $118,500 on 241 filings$118,500 ArchitectLevel IIIexperiencedData engineer, Level III: median $139,152 on 1,704 filings$139,152 Data engineerData scientist, Level III: median $145,308 on 1,703 filings$145,308 Data scientistData or database architect, Level III: median $141,419 on 138 filings$141,419 ArchitectLevel IVfully competentData engineer, Level IV: median $163,342 on 1,396 filings$163,342 Data engineerData scientist, Level IV: median $172,425 on 1,287 filings$172,425 Data scientistData or database architect, Level IV: median $170,000 on 129 filings$170,000 Architect
Title family Filings Employers Level I Level II Level III Level IV All levels
Data engineer 8,904 2,988 $95,000 $112,923 $139,152 $163,342 $125,000
Data scientist 7,268 2,441 $96,117 $115,939 $145,308 $172,425 $137,946
Data or database architect 583 363 $98,571 $118,500 $141,419 $170,000 $136,000

Inside the same company

75 employers filed at least five of both titles. Data engineers have the higher median at 45 and data scientists at 29; the median difference is +4,375. Among the ten largest below, data scientists lead at 9, so the answer depends on the employer.

Employer Data engineer filings Median Data scientist filings Median Engineer minus scientist
Amazon 643 $156,700 289 $165,100 -8,400
Meta 303 $199,234 312 $203,302 -4,068
Walmart 96 $140,917 287 $172,170 -31,253
Google 32 $171,500 229 $200,000 -28,500
Fidelity 181 $125,119 10 $161,803 -36,684
CVS 70 $132,500 94 $130,728 +1,772
TikTok / ByteDance 73 $190,000 91 $205,000 -15,000
Caremark 78 $145,070 54 $157,242 -12,172
Apple 25 $148,741 106 $168,142 -19,400
Aetna 46 $146,160 53 $157,162 -11,002

The federal codes employers choose

Employers must assign a federal code, and for this one title they split widely: 39% use 15-2051, 32% use 15-1252 and 17% use 15-1243. The median offer ranges from $93,288 to $139,081 across the six most used. The BLS medians below count all workers in those codes, not data engineers, and include some incentive pay, so a gap against them is not a premium.

SOC code on the filing Data engineer filings Share Median offer
15-2051 Data Scientists 3,481 39.1% $120,000
15-1252 Software Developers 2,845 32.0% $127,000
15-1243 Database Architects 1,506 16.9% $139,081
15-1242 Database Administrators 503 5.6% $108,846
15-1299 Computer Systems Engineers/Architects 231 2.6% $115,835
15-1251 Computer Programmers 123 1.4% $93,288
BLS occupation, May 2025 Jobs 10th 25th Median 75th 90th
Database architects BLS 15-1243 67,140 $86,240 $109,370 $139,500 $169,290 $204,000
Software developers BLS 15-1252 1,687,890 $82,460 $105,210 $135,980 $171,980 $214,670
Data scientists BLS 15-2051 262,440 $67,240 $85,660 $120,230 $158,880 $199,130

Top employers filing data engineer positions

Amazon files the most, 643 at a $156,700 median, followed by Meta (303, $199,234) and Fidelity (181, $125,119). A median here mixes levels and cities, so the level columns matter as much as the dollars.

# Employer Filings Median offer Level I Level I or II At the prevailing wage
1 Amazon 643 $156,700 16% 62% 10%
2 Meta 303 $199,234 26% 40% 13%
3 Fidelity 181 $125,119 2% 45% 86%
4 Walmart 96 $140,917 19% 45% 12%
5 Caremark 78 $145,070 1% 32% 6%
6 TikTok / ByteDance 73 $190,000 23% 60% 33%
7 Tesla 71 $165,000 6% 49% 0%
8 CVS 70 $132,500 10% 47% 7%
9 Compunnel 56 $123,942 0% 64% 16%
10 Rocket 56 $120,000 4% 38% 55%
11 Visa 49 $161,637 2% 29% 76%
12 Aetna 46 $146,160 7% 46% 2%
13 Expedia 43 $149,240 0% 21% 100%
14 FedEx 43 $144,940 7% 37% 5%
15 Randstad Digital 37 $135,000 0% 62% 5%

The title rule, and what it leaves out

A filing counts when JOB_TITLE contains DATA ENGINEER and names no manager, executive, analyst, architect or scientist role. We individually read 200 random matched titles and 197 (98.5%) were data engineering roles; the misses were titles such as Product Data Engineer at a manufacturer. 634 manager-level titles naming data engineering are excluded. Adjacent titles doing similar work are also out, and they would change the picture, so they are sized here. The rule cannot catch data engineers titled plain Software Engineer.

Title variant (no manager titles) Treatment Filings Median offer
Exactly DATA ENGINEER Counted 4,091 $110,448
Cloud or tool prefix (Azure, AWS, GCP, Snowflake, Big Data) Counted 391 $108,077
Bare or team-style DATA ENGINEERING, no ENGINEER word Excluded 513 $153,442
ETL developer or engineer Excluded 497 $112,923
Analytics engineer Excluded 336 $130,000
Data platform engineer Excluded 181 $160,805
Data warehouse titles Excluded 173 $117,730
Databricks or Snowflake, no DATA ENGINEER Excluded 187 $109,845

Five years of filings, and a dated tracker

From the year ending June 2022 to the year ending June 2026, the median rose from $116,043 to $125,000 (+7.7%) and filings from 7,697 to 8,904, while all certified H-1B cases went from 547,350 to 493,658. Filing counts move with the H-1B program itself, which our H-1B statistics report tracks, so do not read them as demand for the job.

12 months ending Filings Median Level I Level II Level III Level IV Level I share Data scientist median All certified H-1B cases
YE Jun 2022 7,697 $116,043 $85,000 $95,000 $125,000 $145,000 9.3% $129,000 547,350
YE Jun 2023 6,794 $120,000 $95,000 $102,544 $130,000 $150,000 11.3% $131,592 456,825
YE Jun 2024 7,957 $116,000 $85,000 $103,500 $135,000 $152,083 15.3% $132,214 492,352
YE Jun 2025 9,175 $125,000 $86,466 $110,240 $142,103 $164,000 15.7% $138,400 531,668
YE Jun 2026 8,904 $125,000 $95,000 $112,923 $139,152 $163,342 13.3% $137,946 493,658

By Labor Department release

Decisions through DOL file Filings Median Level I filings Level I median Level II median
2026-06-30 FY2026 Q3 file 3,977 $118,893 676 $97,443 $109,491
2026-03-31 FY2026 Q3 file 1,759 $130,000 176 $95,500 $114,390
2025-12-31 FY2026 Q3 file 1,341 $129,709 137 $90,896 $113,000
2025-09-30 FY2025 Q4 1,827 $128,732 195 $92,872 $113,118
2025-06-30 FY2025 Q3 3,986 $111,440 964 $84,781 $106,000
2025-03-31 FY2025 Q2 1,735 $133,120 148 $101,140 $118,414
2024-12-31 FY2025 Q1 1,717 $132,454 157 $97,469 $117,716
2024-09-30 FY2024 Q4 1,737 $130,000 174 $97,500 $113,548
2024-06-30 FY2024 Q3 3,319 $105,808 713 $82,500 $102,000
2024-03-31 FY2024 Q2 1,563 $130,000 138 $103,900 $113,000
2023-12-31 FY2024 Q1 1,395 $122,000 156 $90,000 $106,974
2023-09-30 FY2023 Q4 1,680 $117,062 209 $90,000 $103,400

LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2026_Q3.xlsx was the newest file listed when checked on 2 November 2026. It covers 1 October 2025 to 30 June 2026. Quarterly counts swing with the H-1B cap season.

What this means for MSPs

Price the level you actually need. The guidance places “moderately complex tasks that require limited judgment” at Level II, where 45% of filings sit. If that describes the job, the benchmark is $112,923 ($54.29 an hour base, before benefits), not the $163,342 at the top of the ladder. Level II in Dallas is $112,923, in New York $120,000 and in San Francisco $161,637.

Read a low offer as a floor. H-1B employers must pay at least the higher of the prevailing wage or their own actual wage, and 49% of Level II filings offer the prevailing wage. If a staffing partner quotes a Dallas data engineer near $112,923, that matches the floor for one code at that metro and level. It is no evidence that people accept that wage from a smaller firm.

Do not over-title the role. Before posting Senior Data Engineer, note that 29% of such filings sit at Level II. Write the duties and required experience first, then see which level they describe. If the real need is reporting, compare against our data scientist figures, where the same code includes analyst-style work.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a data engineer make by experience level?

On 8,904 certified H-1B filings decided from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026, the median offered base wage was $95,000 at Labor Department Level I (entry), $112,923 at Level II, $139,152 at Level III and $163,342 at Level IV. These cover H-1B positions only.

What is the entry-level data engineer salary?

The Level I median is $95,000 on 1,184 filings, with the middle half from $82,998 to $120,822. Without Amazon and Meta, which file many Level I roles at far higher offers, it is $90,896. Titles that literally say junior or entry are rare, just 9 filings.

What does a data engineer with 5 years of experience make?

The federal filings cannot say. The form records no years of experience, and the Labor Department’s guidance scores experience relative to an occupation’s O*NET Job Zone alongside education, skills and supervision, so a level does not equal a fixed year count. Pages quoting year bands use self-reports or vendor data.

What is the senior data engineer salary?

Filings with Senior or Sr. in the title have a $139,152 median across 1,880 filings. The title is not the same as the level: 29% of them are filed at Level II and 25% at Level IV. Staff titles show $170,000.

Do data engineers make more than data scientists?

As filed, no: $125,000 against $137,946. Holding both metro and wage level fixed the difference is +0.1%, so the raw gap mostly reflects level and location. Of 75 employers filing at least five of each, data engineers lead at 45 and data scientists at 29.

Is this the average pay of all data engineers?

No. It is the median offered base wage on H-1B filings. It leaves out citizens and other workers not on these filings, leaves out equity and bonus, and a filing is neither proof of the wage paid nor proof the position was filled.

Download the data. data-engineer-h1b-lca-filings.csv (CSV). Licensed under CC BY 4.0: free to reuse with attribution to The Uptime Report.

Methodology

Source. Department of Labor, Office of Foreign Labor Certification, LCA disclosure data (Form ETA-9035), 21 quarterly xlsx files from FY2021 Q1 to FY2026 Q3. FY2025 and FY2026 files were downloaded 15 October 2026 and the rest on 2 November 2026, when FY2026 Q3 was still the newest file listed. BLS May 2025 OEWS, the 2018 SOC direct-match file and BEA 2024 regional price parities supply the comparisons.

Filters. VISA_CLASS H-1B, deduplicated by CASE_NUMBER (the later file wins), CASE_STATUS Certified (Certified-Withdrawn excluded), FULL_TIME_POSITION Y. Windows use DECISION_DATE. The headline window is 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026, so it holds one full cap season. A certified case later withdrawn shows as Certified-Withdrawn in a later file and leaves the count, so the newest quarters can shrink slightly on refresh. 158 of 199,598 full-time certified rows in the data-role extract, across all years, were dropped for an annualized wage outside $20,000 to $1,000,000 or no wage.

Title rules. JOB_TITLE, uppercased. Managers and executives are removed from all three families. A title naming a data engineer is counted as one unless it also names an analyst, architect, scientist, sales or recruiter role.

DATA ENGINEER: \bDATA ENGINEERS?\bDATA SCIENTIST: \bDATA SCIENTISTS?\bDATA OR DATABASE ARCHITECT: \b(DATA|DATABASE) ARCHITECTS?\bEXCLUDED, ALL: \b(MANAGER|MGR|MANAGEMENT|DIRECTOR|VP|VICE PRESIDENT|PRESIDENT|HEAD OF|HEAD|CHIEF|CTO|INTERN|RECRUITER|PROFESSOR|POSTDOC\w*|POST-DOC\w*)\bEXCLUDED, DATA ENGINEER: \b(SALES|RECRUITER|ARCHITECT|SCIENTIST|ANALYST)\b

Precision. 200 random data engineer filings from the newest 12 months (fixed seed 20261102), every title read individually: 197 of 200. Recall was not measured; the variants table sizes the largest groups the rule leaves out.

Wages. WAGE_RATE_OF_PAY_FROM annualized (hour x 2,080, week x 52, bi-weekly x 26, month x 12). Where a filing gives a range we use the bottom of it: 31% of data engineer filings state a range, and using midpoints gives a $129,958 median instead of $125,000. Offers apply to the first worksite. “Offer equals the prevailing wage” means the offer is within 0.1% of the filing’s prevailing wage or below it. Weighted by positions requested, the median is $132,100; we count filings because positions are ceilings, not hires.

Wage levels. PW_WAGE_LEVEL as filed. The quotations come from the Labor Department’s Prevailing Wage Determination Policy Guidance, revised November 2009. They are the Department’s experience proxy. We do not convert them to years because the guidance scores requirements relative to O*NET Job Zones and the filings do not record years.

Controls. The role comparisons regress log wage on the title within cells of wage level and metro. They describe the filings and are not causal. Without those cells the difference with data scientists is -7.8%; with wage level alone, -5.4%; with metro alone, -1.6%; with metro, level and employer, -0.0%.

Limits. H-1B positions only. Base wage only. An offer is not necessarily the wage paid. Employers may not fill the positions they file for. The form records no years of experience and no job duties.

Not advice. These are public filing statistics, not a salary benchmark for any one role.

Cite as:The Uptime Report. "Data Engineer Salary by Experience: $95,000 at Entry Level I to $163,342 at Level IV, From 8,904 Labor Department Filings." November 2026. https://theuptimereport.com/data-engineer-salary-by-experience/

References

  1. U.S. Department of Labor, OFLC Performance Data, LCA disclosure files FY2021 to FY2026. Accessed November 2026.
  2. DOL OFLC, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2026_Q3.xlsx. Accessed November 2026.
  3. DOL OFLC, LCA record layout, FY2025 Q4. Accessed November 2026.
  4. DOL Employment and Training Administration, Prevailing Wage Determination Policy Guidance, revised November 2009. Accessed November 2026.
  5. DOL Wage and Hour Division, Fact Sheet 62G: required wage for H-1B workers. Accessed November 2026.
  6. BLS, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Accessed November 2026.
  7. BLS, 2018 SOC direct match title file. Accessed November 2026.
  8. BEA, Regional Price Parities by metro area, 2024. Accessed November 2026.
  9. Built In, Data Engineer salary in US (method only). Accessed November 2026.
  10. Coursera, Data engineer salary (method only). Accessed November 2026.

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